Who killed billionaire Edmond Safra?
In 1999, after the passage of the flames, the luxurious building named the Belle Epoque on the avenue d’Ostende in Monaco, is the scene of a mortal trap. The body of one of the richest men in the world, banker Edmond Safra is found lifeless and burned, alongside his nurse who was treating him.
Asphyxiated, the two unfortunates found themselves trapped inan intentional fire. Among the suspects, the silhouette ofan American nurse, Ted Maher, at the service of Safra stands out. He is said to be discreet and attentive. However, behind his white blouse hides a whimsical character endowed with a gift for lies and the art of dissimulation.
On December 5, 1999, almost 48 hours after the tragedy, Ted Maher is taken into custody. Faced with more and more pressing questions, the nurse becomes confused, loses his footing and ends up recognizing that he invented everything. The nurse admits that he is indeed the cause of the deadly fire. Yet he did not want to kill. He just wanted to be noticed by his boss. Three years after the facts, he is judged.
He constantly tries to muddy the waters
Jean-Michel Verne
Interviewed in The time of the crime, Jean-Michel Verne, independent journalist who followed the case for the magazine Figaro, attested a change in behavior during the trial in 2006, following his escape from Monaco prison: “Maher, who until then had been very shy, very reserved, completely repentant during his first trial, he becomes aggressive. He’s another character. And that challenged us a lot”, he said at the microphone of RTL.
Ted Maher setter 7 years of his life in prison before being released and returning to the United States, his country which he had left for Monaco. When he returned to the United States in 2007, Ted Maher gave another version of the facts. He gives several interviews in the case he claims to be innocent and claims to have admitted the facts only under threat. According to the American nurse, the Safra dynasty left him no choice.
Jean-Michel Verne continues: “He returns to the conspiracy thesis, he returns to his first statements. He always tries to confuse the issue and it’s true thatwe are in front of a somewhat psychopathic personality”.
On June 13, 2022, after fifteen years of silence, Ted Maher, 64, alias Jon Green, was arrested in San Antonio, Texas. Suspected of trafficking purebred dogs and of having fabricated a fictitious identity, the former nurse risked several years in prison.
The guests of “The hour of crime”
– Jean-Michel Verne, independent journalist (who followed the case for the figaro magazine, the Tribune de Genève) and author of the book “The last mysteries of Marseille” (Robert Laffont / 2022) and “Under the rock exactly, the curse of Albert” fr 2006.
-Richard Werly, journalist and France/Europe correspondent for Blick.fr.
